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If our system for nominating and electing a president of the United States seems both chaotic and incoherent, it’s because it is. And what may make matters worse is that, to the extent that it was designed and didn’t just mutate, it reflects our Founders’ desires.

For all of our high regard for the Founders, they didn’t particularly believe in the wisdom of the masses and feared the people becoming a passionate and unreasonable mob. Thus they built into the entire system planned inefficiency. They created three branches of government to be in constant tension and for none to have supremacy. They created our senate to be the cooling saucer for the hot tea spilled by the impetuous rabble that they accurately foresaw congress would be.

They also intentionally constructed our Electoral College to remove the direct will of the people, as well as to give relevancy for smaller or poorer states. This College separates the elections from the masses. We the People, in our individual states, elect electors, who, in theory, are pledged to a candidate. We vote not for Donald or Hillary but for state delegates to the Electoral College.

Our system of Primaries follows the same general model, but–and here’s the “beauty” part–each state, plus Puerto Rico and Guam, has different rules. And each party also has different rules. The one thing I do not fault Trump for is not understanding the incoherent complexity of this soi-dissant system.

In some states there are primaries that select a delegation pledged to vote for the party’s winner in their state convention. Well, that’s not completely true. They vote for other delegates pledged to the winner who promise to vote for the winner at the party’s national convention. Some states choose delegates proportionately and others have a winner take all. Still others have a combined system of pledged delegates, free agents and proportionality that awards delegates for carrying individual congressional districts. Others give bonuses for winning more than 50%. Got it? I didn’t think so.

Some states eschew primaries for caucuses. Held at different times of day or night, groups come together and then self-select by gathering physically. If your candidate does not have enough bodies, then you can go home or move to another group until the critical mass (Different in each caucus state) is reached. They then are pledged to select electors to go to the convention.

How did we get this mess? There’s actually a reason for the mayhem, beyond the Founders. This was to fix the problem of corruption and party bosses, men in smoke-filled rooms, choosing the candidate. This was a “power to the people” fix. And thus we are victimized by the most sure and certain law in the universe, The Law of Unintended Consequences.

Is there anything good about our endless campaigns and chaotic pre-convention process? Well, yes. We do get to know and therefore, in theory, vet the various candidates. We see how they stand up to scrutiny over time. We see who is shallow. Who melts. Who when he or she stumbles gets back up and who panics.